Congress Cuts a Deal for Mental Health Parity

More health-care action from Congress: After long negotiations, the House and Senate have come to an agreement on mental health parity.

After wrangling over the issue for more than a decade, a deal has emerged that seems to satisfy a pretty wide range of interest groups, the WSJ reports.

Under the bill, employers who offer mental health coverage will have to provide benefits that are comparable to those for other maladies. Under current law, it’s fairly common for plans to, say, charge higher co-pays for mental health coverage than for other kinds of health care.

The bill exempts employers with fewer than 50 employees. And it allows employers to choose which, if any, mental health conditions will be covered.

“[W]e think this is a responsible approach to extend mental-health parity and mental-health coverage,” an exec at the National Retail Federation told the WSJ. The director of legislative advocacy for the National Alliance on Mental Illness called the bill “an enormous step.”

Meanwhile, the government is practicing what it mandates: Besides blocking pay cuts to doctors, the Medicare bill passed earlier this week will lower beneficiaries co-pays for mental-health services from 50% to 20%, to bring it in line with co-pays for other kinds of illness.

Comments (5 of 18)

To the allaged "Doctor from AZ" who says "mandates" are what is driving up healthcare: Are the illnesses you and your family suffer from worth more than the illnesses of people who have schizophrenia or bipolar disorder? Hate to tell you, bub, a lot of what covers you and yours were forced in by "mandates". Can we stop acting like healthcare in the US is a free market system? It's not.

11:59 pm July 13, 2008

The Elephant's Child wrote :

I am a pharmacist, and I have seen many drugs, especially the anti-epileptics used for off-label treatments to stabilize mood or relieve pain. Off-label uses rely on docs knowing the current standard of practice and being informed about treatment options. Unfortunately, these are the issues exploited by Pharmaceutical COS. BUT - Bi-polar disorder and depression ruin peoples lives, keep them from becoming contributing members of society (by that I mean taxpaying in addition to holding a good job). Why should we withold or limit treatment because these people are suffering from a mental disorder? We must examine our prejudices about mental illness before we come out against mental health parity. Actually, pharmaceutical costs have more or less replaced hospital stays and let people, even heart patients, go home sooner. People are living longer, and treating cancer, most cardiac and related problems, diabetes and associated illnesses with medication. The costs of medication, as well as the cost of new procedures are driving up costs in health care. Everyone wants to be able to live the best life they can, and when they are the ones being treated, will take any means possible to do just that. Mental health parity is one way to accomplish longer life and my guess is that it won't cost that much more. Don't blame the person seeking health care. Blame the ranks of middle management that pull down pretty fair salaries that are increasing the cost of health care. The system is broken.

7:59 pm July 13, 2008

Dr Roy wrote :

When it comes down to money, and behavioral illness, there are affordable capabilities at places like OptumHealth Behavioral Solutions, taking about 45mins, that screen for all sorts of brain conditions, and that accuractly identify whether patients would do better on one class or another. Once that is done, the signs and symptoms approach from psychiatry has much less guesswork associated with it. So there are tests that accurately identify brain related conditions, cheaply, and produce reports in minutes, so physicians can react quickly.

6:04 pm July 13, 2008

Kelly wrote :

Thanks for the information on the mental health parity. It's good to see they're doing something about mentlal health benefits.

We recently wrote an article on at Brain Blogger. Mental health is something too easily overlooked when it comes to prisons. However, mental health has a link with reoffending criminals. So should more be done?

We would like to read your comments on our article. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Kelly

5:31 pm July 13, 2008

Randy Crenshaw, MD wrote :

According to ClinicalEvidence.com, in mild to moderate depression, there is no reliable evidence that any one treatment is superior in improving symptoms of depression, but the strength of evidence supporting different treatments varies. Talking therapy, administered by a variety of personnel, is as effective as drug therapy. Since depression often gets better without treatment of any sort, it is hard to know whether it is a medical or behavioral problem. The evidence does not allow one to say it is caused by a chemical imbalance.